REVERSE (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: 👁 Image
SQL Server 👁 Image
Azure SQL Database 👁 Image
Azure SQL Managed Instance 👁 Image
Azure Synapse Analytics 👁 Image
Analytics Platform System (PDW) 👁 Image
SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric 👁 Image
Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric 👁 Image
SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

Returns the reverse order of a string value.

👁 Image
Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

REVERSE ( string_expression ) 

Arguments

string_expression
string_expression is an expression of a string or binary data type. string_expression can be a constant, variable, or column of either character or binary data.

Return Types

varchar or nvarchar

Remarks

string_expression must be of a data type that is implicitly convertible to varchar. Otherwise, use CAST to explicitly convert string_expression.

Supplementary Characters (Surrogate Pairs)

When using SC collations, the REVERSE function will not reverse the order of two halves of a surrogate pair.

Examples

The following example returns all contact first names with the characters reversed. This example uses the AdventureWorks2025 database.

SELECT FirstName, REVERSE(FirstName) AS Reverse 
FROM Person.Person 
WHERE BusinessEntityID < 5 
ORDER BY FirstName; 
GO 

Here's the result set.

FirstName Reverse
-------------- --------------
Ken neK
Rob boR
Roberto otreboR
Terri irreT

(4 row(s) affected)

The following example reverses the characters in a variable.

DECLARE @myvar VARCHAR(10); 
SET @myvar = 'sdrawkcaB'; 
SELECT REVERSE(@myvar) AS Reversed ; 
GO 

The following example makes an implicit conversion from an int data type into varchar data type and then reverses the result.

SELECT REVERSE(1234) AS Reversed ; 
GO 

Examples: Azure Synapse Analytics and Analytics Platform System (PDW)

The following example returns names of all databases, and the names with the characters reversed.

SELECT name, REVERSE(name) FROM sys.databases; 
GO 

See Also

CONCAT (Transact-SQL)
CONCAT_WS (Transact-SQL)
FORMATMESSAGE (Transact-SQL)
QUOTENAME (Transact-SQL)
REPLACE (Transact-SQL)
STRING_AGG (Transact-SQL)
STRING_ESCAPE (Transact-SQL)
STUFF (Transact-SQL)
TRANSLATE (Transact-SQL)
CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)
Data Types (Transact-SQL)